Original Sin
by Yrdenal
Summary: Have you ever wondered where Jareth truly came from? Who his parents really were? Why he stole children? ONESHOT, may turn into more!


A oneshot for now, may eventually turn into more.

I don't own Labyrinth. I also don't own the bible, or talmud, or any jewish tradition. lol.

* * *

In the beginning, there was nothing. It was a time of stretching blackness, deep emptiness. Then, from a speck of dust smaller than the average microscope can see- ENERGY. Creation began, moving faster than the speed of light, defying anything anyone ever said about physics, about life, about anything. Some people called this the Big Bang, others called it Genesis. Regardless of what it was called, it was the Beginning. Planets were created, destroyed, absorbed into other planets. Stars flashed into existence and then dimmed, spent. And on one tiny little planet, life was created.

In the Beginning, the Creator made the earth, and the sun, and the water. He made trees, and the beasts of the air, and the creatures of the water, and animals that walked on land. He made beings of light, intended only to do his will- called angels, by some. But still, this mighty Creator was lonely. So, as a child is known to do when he is aching for true company, he created lesser beings out of clay and dirt. Man and Woman, Adam and Lilith. They were born of the same clay, and so were true equals. This creator took them and placed them in a true Paradise, and watched and waited.

Adam and Lilith loved one another fiercely. They explored each others personalities, bodies, hearts and minds like virgins on their wedding night, tentative and innocent. Adam was strong. Lilith was willful. Adam was quick. Lilith was graceful. Their love grew, their innocence remained. The Creator watched and was pleased.

One day, Lilith wanted to leave Adam to explore the boundaries of their Paradise home. Adam was concerned, because he felt no desire to go beyond the boundaries of their small home. He commanded Lilith to stay with him, mimicking his God that commanded the loyalty of hosts of Angels. Lilith was not cowed by this command. It enraged her, and the first seeds of dissent were sown in their virgin world.

'Why will you not obey me, Woman?' Adam asked Lilith one day.

'I am your equal! We were made by the Creator from the very same clay!' Lilith cried back, defiantly.

'God Most High made you to be obedient to me! I will not allow you to dominate me like the lowliest creature.' Adam responded, feeling anger for the first time.

'The Creator made us to be side by side, not one bowed before another, Adam. I will not bow before you!' Lilith said, retreating from Adam.

'I do not ask for you to bow, Woman. I merely ask for obedience! Allow me to rule you, even as I love you, and I will be your slave!'

Lilith heard Adam's words, and the love and desperation behind them. She loved Adam, but she desired freedom from him. 'I cannot let you rule me, Adam. I will not be your slave.'

Lilith ran from Adam, wracked with fear of being followed, being dominated and being humiliated. Her tears were those of shame and anger. What no one realized was that tears, as bountiful as they could be, held powers that no one quite understand. They rolled down the pale cheeks of Lilith, flew back into her red, red hair, and suddenly she was transformed. Huge, blood-red wings sprouted from her shoulders. She became as the eagle, fearsome and proud, and tamed by no man.

The Creator saw this, and was afraid. This was not a part of his plan, of his intentions towards his creations. He saw that Adam lay, weeping bitterly for the loss of Lilith, and sought to fix his heart.

'Sleep, Adam, and I will make you a fitting companion,' said the Creator.

'I want no one but a woman who will love and obey me,' Adam said, and then closed his eyes in sleep.

From Adam's sleeping form, the Creator took a rib. From that rib, he shaped a woman pleasing to the eye, and pliable to Man's commands. She had golden hair, so as to not remind Adam of Lilith. She had blue eyes, innocent and beguiling- so different from the mysterious green of Lilith's eyes. Perhaps most important of all, this new creation came from the flesh of Adam, and so would know Adam as her master.

The Creator woke both Man and Woman, and was pleased. But he watched the two with a growing worry. Lilith flew free, and while she flew far away from here, she was willful, and angry. The Creator called one of his host of many, the most feared and dark Sammael.

'Angel of Death, I call you. Sammael, go and destroy the woman Lilith.'

Sammael spread his own feathered wings, black as the time before Creation, and set out after his prey. He overcame her quickly, with the power of Creation pushing his wings faster. She was over the Great Sea, far from the Paradise of her birth.

Sammael set eyes on her and immediately took pity. He could see the life of her child growing in her womb, so faint that even she did not know it yet. With a thought, he created an island in the middle of the Sea, and called for her to set down on it.

Lilith landed on the tiny island, an Angel of rage and pride. Sammael landed on the island as well, the Angel of Creation and Destruction.

'Woman, I see you and your pride. I see you and your will to live free. You are most beautiful, with wings of feathered red!' Sammael called to her.

'Angel, I see you and your collar. You are not free to do as you will, not truly. Let me break your collar, and then lay with me here on this island.' Lilith responded.

Sammael was intrigued. He did not know that his obedience to the Creator could be severed, and so the idea that she planted took root, and grew into a mighty tree. He went to her, and bowed his head, and she broke his collar of thorns and metal. 'Be free, Angel of Darkness! Be as your heart desires!'

Together, Sammael and Lilith spent many weeks on the tiny island, making it a palace of freedom. But all the time in the world could not stop the tiny life inside Lilith from growing. Sammael slowed time, and eventually stopped it, just to prevent the inevitable, but Lilith finally grew large and round.

'Sammael, I bear a child of Adam. Yet I am no longer as he is! I fear this child has been changed in ways I cannot name.' Lilith cried one day, as her time grew near.

'I will help you with this child, Lilith. Together we will raise him to be free.' Sammael comforted his red bride. He knew, however, that his own dual nature would affect the child, as would the change of time on the island. He could see this tiny infant's future, far away from him, at the center of a great maze.

Lilith cried out, labor pains finally wracking her body. Her wings beat restlessly, and Sammael tried to comfort her.

As the tears and sweat of pain and suffering ran down Lilith's face, her wings darkened, until only the very apex of them were still the blood red as before. Down to the ends they were nearly black. With one last mighty cry, she brought her child into the light, and looked down upon his tiny form.

'A boy, Lilith.' Sammael held the screaming infant, and cleaned him in the Great Sea.

'I want to name him, "Jareth",' Lilith said, exhausted.

'Jareth, you have a great destiny. I cannot see what it is, but I can see it will be far from here.' Sammael said to the boy. He blinked open his eyes, and they were of two different colors.

'His dual nature makes itself known through his eyes, Lilith. He will have both the powers of Destruction and Creation, and Time itself. Beyond that, I cannot say.'

* * *

The Creator, far from the birth of this child, watched His own Paradise fall into dust as Eve, wife of Adam, took a bite from the Forbidden Fruit. She offered the fruit to Adam, who bit as well. They were both overcome with knowledge- knowledge of shame over nudity, over their love, jealousy and anger and fear and greed. The Creator called for Sammael again, to destroy Adam and Eve for their wickedness, but was answered with silence.

'Where is my Darkness? Bring me Sammael, so that I might start on this world afresh!' The Creator called out, and all the heavenly hosts began to search for the lost Angel of Death and Destruction.

When Sammael was discovered, living on a tiny island with the red temptress Lilith, the Creator was angry. 'You defied my orders to destroy the woman Lilith! You ignored my calls! And you have allowed her to bring a child into being! Sammael, I must punish you both.'

Sammael bowed his head. 'Oh Lord of the Hosts, I disobeyed you. It is true. But my love for Lilith is strong enough that no punishment will hurt me.'

Lilith smiled, and held her infant son.

'I will take away your ability to love Lilith, Sammael. I will take away her ability to bear you a child. If you cannot love each other with your bodies, you will not love for long!'

Sammael was stunned. The Creator had come up with a punishment that struck true and to the bone. Lilith screamed, long and with agony- she had wanted more children, many children with Sammael.

'And as for the abomination of a child, thrice transformed from what he was meant to be, I should destroy him.' The Creator looked down on the innocent face of Jareth.

'He will have flight, from his mother. His feathers will be as white as the snow, for his innocence from her sins. He knows the intricacies of moving time, from his caretaker Sammael. But the worst of all is the jealousy that lays closest to his heart, for now all Mankind is corrupted with the sin of it. He will forever want what he cannot have. I should destroy him, to spare him the fate that lays before him.'

Lilith clutched the child, wings wrapped protectively around her frame.

'But I think the worst punishment of all is to let this child live.'

The Creator turned and left, his hosts of Angels with him. One stayed behind, watching the weeping Lilith and Sammael.

'Michael, greatest of the host, do you stay to watch my sorrow?' Sammael asked, tearfully.

'Sammael, the Creator will take you back with open arms. Your wings are black, your soul is not.'

'I am fallen, Michael! I should align myself with the filth of Lucifer, but I cannot bear to.'

'The child will live, and live long. He will be strong. You will not see him grow old if you go to the Fallen Star.'

'Tell me, Archangel, what do you see for my child?' Lilith asked, weeping tears of true sorrow.

'I see him corrupted by your loss today, Lilith. You cannot have another child, so he will find ways to make you happy again. However, there is hope- he must find love, and when he does, he will rise above your rage, and your jealousy.'

'Is that a true seeing, Michael?' Sammael asked.

'It is.'

'Then I will go with you, and beg forgiveness at the foot of our Lord.'

'Sammael, no! Do not leave me!' Lilith begged. Sammael merely smiled, sorrowfully. He and Michael flew after the Creator, leaving Lilith with a tiny child, a reminder of what she could no longer have.

She wept.


End file.
